World shares advance, oil prices fall as worries over inflation ease

TOKYO: World shares advanced Monday at the start of a busy week for US economic updates, with Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index gaining 2.4 per cent.

Investors have been encouraged by easing worries over inflation, which reduce the likelihood of another rate hike by the Federal Reserve. But stock gains were moderate overall in the absence of other market-driving news.

France's CAC 40 lost 1.1 per cent in early trading to 7,813.40, while Germany's DAX was little changed, inching up less than 0.1 per cent to 25,242.92. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.5 per cent to 10,511.80.

The futures for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1 per cent.

In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 2.4 per cent to finish at 69,946.86. Earlier in the day, it climbed briefly above 70,000 points for the first time in three months.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was little changed, edging up less than 0.1 per cent to 8,686.40. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.3 per cent to 24,040.34.

Trading was closed in Shanghai and South Korea for national holidays.

Interest in shares related to artificial intelligence drew buying interest. In Japan, Tokyo Electron gained 5.5 per cent and technology investment giant SoftBank Group's shares gained 3 per cent.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, climbed 3 per cent.

This week will bring fresh data on the health of the US services sector, unemployment and consumer sentiment.

On Friday, the S&P 500 climbed 0.7 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 1.2 per cent.

An update last week on the US jobs market helped to alleviate worries about higher inflation. The US government said employers across the country added 29,000 more jobs to their payrolls than they cut last month. That was fewer than economists expected and a slowdown from August's net hiring rate of 133,000.

Markets took that to mean the Federal Reserve will be less likely to raise its benchmark rate. The Federal Reserve recently raised its main interest rate for the first time in three years to try to rein in the painful increases for the cost of living.

In energy trading, benchmark US crude lost 1.7 per cent to USD 89.57 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, declined 1.3 per cent to USD 100.95 a barrel.

Oil prices have been yo-yoing lately amid uncertainty about how the war with Iran will reshape the global oil industry.

In currency trading in Asia Monday, the US dollar fell to 157.71 Japanese yen from 157.83 yen. The euro cost USD 1.1204, down from USD 1.1257.